Why Can't Italy's Economy Get into Gear? Consider the Taxi Line

I always found Italy as a neighboring country to have a pretty good workers' rights and an active government body that crushes foreign agents attempting to break the status quo at the cost of the common man. Maybe that slows down the economy, but the end result seems to benefit the middle class more than in the rest of the world where the economy is basically extincting it. I imagine there's a lot that could be done to raise the economy, but it's hard to say what can be done without lowering the living standards somewhat for the majority of people.

&gt; Italy’s economy is 1.5% smaller than it was in 2007<p>That is impressively bad for a developed western economy.<p>I suspect the country would be in severe trouble if it wasn’t for their membership in the EU single market.

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This is like an American complaining that the burger they got in Bangkok doesn’t taste like a Big Mac.<p>Every country has their own setup and typically it reflects a set of tradeoffs. Outsiders see the downsides but then seem not to see the upsides, or treat those upsides as intrinsic (via the essentialist fallacy) rather than the consequence of tradeoffs. In this case, Italians tend to value social connectedness and fierce regional affiliation, which as a cultural force has great benefits even while it drives corruption.<p>I’m not downplaying Italy’s crappy economic performance. It sucks, especially for the young and for the credentialed elite. But Italy is (intentionally or not) perhaps running a different race than aiming for the top of the GDP ranking list.

As an Italian, I can only confirm: that the lack of concurrency and free market here is probably the biggest problem for economic growth. So many markets are under heavy regulation and there are a lot of barriers to entering it. Lobbying and political personal interests are just aggravating the situation: taxi license owners, Alitalia workers or tourism minister that own a luxury bath that pay a very little of concession tax are just few examples. Together with a high level of populism in almost every political party this is the biggest issue for Italy economic growth and development.